Stardust
by Daniel Shaun Mewlintha
Summary: Star Zenia Mystican, Princess of Atlantis and one of my Sonic fancharatcers, awakens from a long sleep and finds herself in a strange new world. Her city has been destroyed, but the spirits promise it can be revived. The quest begins here.
1. Awakening

It was the dawn of a warm spring day on Flicky Island. A slight breeze was blowing in as the Flickies woke up and got ready for what lay ahead that day. The Flickies had finally recovered from the shock of Dr. Robotnik's hostile takeover of the island, and by now the island had been completely cleared of any signs of the evil doctor's industrial rev-up. Now the Flickies roamed the island freely and cheerily. The sun rose higher up in the sky, promising a hot day.

In a hidden chamber deep in the ruins of Atlantis, the last of a once huge chunk of ice, thousands of years old, had nearly completely melted. All that remained was a thin layer of ice formed around a figure like a statue. Within the ice, a white hedgehog stood, still sealed within the ancient ice, still in her seemingly eternal slumber, waiting for the moment when the last of the ice would melt away. Her seven quills pointed downward toward the stone floor.

Magic was in the air. The breeze blew around the chamber, finally finding the mystical place it had been searching for. Then, it circled the chamber, looking for a way in. A stream of fire beamed down from the sun, which then proceeded to join the wind in looking for a way in to the ancient room.

Then, the other elements sensed it. Water leaped from the ocean, stones leaped from the ruins, and light and shadow met together in the swirling energy. The power of the storm joined in as lightning surged through. Water, wind and fire—earth and electricity—darkness and light. Seven powers joined together, and with them came seven gems.

One was the bright blue of the flowing water. Another was the golden passing of the wind. The next was red hot, as a burning flame. The green of the earth came next, and then a startling, shocking pink. A dark blue brought forth darkness, yet the bright, shimmering silver light cut through the shadows.

Seven gems, seven powers. That was all there was to it. The seven gems encircled the chamber, in the ancient symbol of the seven-pointed star. Then, each element chose a gem. They began to cut through the chamber. Then, the ice melted, and the white hedgehog opened her lavender eyes.

Seven strange gems encircled her. But in just a moment, she recognized them. She remembered what happened… why the ice was there… and what had happened to her land.

"The Chaos Emeralds," she whispered.

_Yes, Star, _called the ancient spirits around her. _Atlantis has been destroyed for thousands of years now. But all hope is not lost. Atlantis can and will be restored. Remember: Everything will work itself out eventually._

"What must I do?" she whispered.

_Harness the powers of the Chaos Emeralds. They hold more power than you realize. Find a blue hedgehog, and travel to the island that floats above the sea._

"What?" she asked aloud. But the spirits had gone.

She picked up the emeralds, and as she swiftly ran to the door of the chamber, she heard the voices of the spirits once again.

_Things are not how they once were. The Trident Room, which once balanced and kept together the Chaos Energy of Atlantis, was destroyed along with Atlantis. You cannot use your powers quite so freely anymore. You need seven gems, one for each power, in ascending order,_

"The Chaos Emeralds," she said again as she stopped while reaching for the door. She knew the powers she had had in Atlantis…

_The powers of water, in all forms, come most naturally to you. They flow through you easily. You need no emeralds to use them. Next comes wind, which needs but one emerald. Then comes fire, earth, followed by electricity. The final two are darkness and light. _

"But what about the seventh emer…" she stopped when she realized that, once again, the spirits were gone.

Star took a deep breath and then opened the door. For the first time in thousands of years, she felt the warmth of the sun on her fur, while the brightness put a smile on her face. But after a moment of looking at the sky, she saw what she had been dreading to see. The ruins of Atlantis, spread out in front of her like a crowd at a concert, just waiting to hear her sing. She had always had a bit of stage fright. But this was worse… much worse.

She could remember looking out at her city all those years ago just before they had closed the door to the chamber. As she walked down the spiral steps that curved around the circle and led to the ground, she saw all the ruins, all around her. It was devastating. What could she possibly do to bring back her city?

  

Just as she reached the bottom step, she saw a gold ring appear some distance away. Then, four Flickies sprang out, heading straight for her. She tried to duck, but she was too late. The Flickies ran straight into Star, knocking her off the staircase and to the ground a few feet below.

She got to her feet to look for her attackers. Then, she heard chirping from behind her. She turned to see four Flickies chirping around happily in a circle. Flickies had not been an uncommon species in Atlantis. They often came and went through dimension rings that led to the Flickies' Realm. In fact, Atlantis had once been called the Flicky Capital of the world.

But most Flickies' were one of four colors: blue, pink, red, or green. Other colors were extremely rare. Such was the case with the four Flickies chirping around in a circle in front of her.

One was a shining white, with feathers the color of Star's fur. Another was purple—nearly the same shade as Star's dress and eyes. Another was a fiery orange, and the final one had feathers black as a raven's.

Then, to her surprise, the purple Flicky flew in front of her and began to speak in an excited voice. "Princess Star! Princess Star!" exclaimed the Flicky. "We can't believe it's actually you! The boss told us we would meet someone to help on their quest to restore Atlantis, but… the Princess? Isn't this so exciting Diamond?"

The white Flicky flew up to the purple one.

"It is the Princess!" said the Flicky wide-eyed as she looked the white hedgehog down from top to bottom. "You're right Vi! But… how'd she survive?"

The orange Flicky jumped in. "I know! I know! It's—"

The black Flicky quickly put his shadowy wing over the orange Flicky's mouth. "Don't mind Percy, Princess. He's a little random. And crazy." The bird took his mouth from Percy's beak and then he spread his wing over his chest and bowed, saying, "By the way, my name is Jet. And this is Diamond, Vi, and Percy."

Star grabbed her chance to finally get a chance to talk, although she was nearly drowned out by the sounds of Vi and Percy flitting around and around, saying, "Yay! The Princess! She's survived!"

"Umm…" Star couldn't quite think straight. After all, the two colorful Flickies flying around crazily were the loudest sound she had heard for thousands of years. After a quick shush from Diamond, however, they stopped goofing around. Star nodded and quickly thanked the Flicky before moving on.

"Yes, I am Princess Star. As you may have known, they tried to keep all of the Royal family safe with these chambers. However, at the last moment I heard one of the elders say that the magic from whatever had destroyed Atlantis would be too strong even for the chambers. A slash of silver flashed through the sky, and then huge waves came out of nowhere from the seas around us. The sky, which had been sunny all morning, was suddenly filled with dark storm clouds. Yet some seemed oddly familiar…"

The Flickies had now sat themselves down on bricks nearby, hanging on to the princesses every word. They were eagerly awaiting the next part of the story.

"… It was the power of contained Chaos Energy. Whatever had destroyed Atlantis had also sucked in all of the Chaos Energy it could find. It even cut through time and space. Among these were Chaos Gems, such as the seven Chaos Emeralds. Years ago, my friend Sola had saved Atlantis from a time storm by sacrificing his powers to the Emeralds. Now, he was helping me…"

"… He brought the Chaos Emeralds, through his control of them, to this chamber. They floated high above the sky. Then, from the power within them he had stored up, he shot a blast of pure Chaos Energy at the chamber, and then bended it into the one thing that could save me. Water filled the room, which then quickly froze and became ice. As the ice closed in around me, I thanked my friend and fell into a deep, peaceful sleep. Over thousands of years, I dreamed many things. Of what had happened to Atlantis… of what had happened to my friends and family… of Sola and the emeralds… but after awhile, I understood they were only dreams. I gave up on trying to wake up, on worrying and hoping, and finally settled into the ice. Now, the ice has melted, and I am back. The spirits tell me that I must restore Atlantis, and that I can activate my powers with these—"

She held out the seven gems that she had found lying around her in the chamber. The four Flickies stared at them, shining in the sunlight, and then, as one voice they whispered, "The Chaos Emeralds."

Star nodded her head.


	2. Amnesiacy Tendency

"So, the Chaos Emeralds often come and go through the Flicky dimension?" Star was beginning to piece together all of the useful things the four Flickies knew.

"Yes," replied Diamond. "They travel to wherever they must go for our hero to use their incredible powers."

"'Our hero?'" Star asked.

"Yeah!" interrupted Percy as Diamond was about to speak. "Like Sonic! And Knuckles! Ooh, and Tails! Tails is awesome!"

"Who?"

Jet put his wing over Percy's mouth as Diamond began to speak again.

"Every few generations, a group of great evils, dangers to our worlds, will arise. We search the globe for those who may be able to stop the evil, although we are often captured and sealed in cages. It was because of a long stream of these capturings that we discovered out next hero."

Diamond took a quick breath and continued. "An evil scientist named Dr. Ivo Robotnik had captured many of our South Island Agents and trapped them in horrible little robots called badniks. Their purpose was to guard the evil doctor's base, but also to search for the fabled Chaos Emeralds, which were said to hold incredible power that he believed could be used to take over the world. Sonic came and released many of our Agents. They reported back, telling us of their savior, the blue hedgehog named Sonic. We tested him with special stages for six emeralds, as we could not yet trust him with seven—"

At "blue hedgehog," Star's ears had pricked up.

"Blue hedgehog?!" she gasped as Diamond took another breath. "The spirits told me to find a blue hedgehog who would take me to an island floating above the sea! Where is he?"

Jet released his wing from the mouth of Percy in a flap of excitement.

"He's to arrive on Flicky Island shortly. He's come back to check up on the Flickies. He's been doing this every once and a while ever since Robotnik's hostile takeover of the island ended. I'm sure he can give you more details later… anyway, he'll be arriving in Green Grove, to the south, any minute now!"

Eager to begin her quest to restore Atlantis, she hurried through the ruins, which soon ended and began to turn into a grassy terrain with palm trees and cliffs all around. She ran to the shore, as the four Flickies tried to keep up with her unexpected burst of speed. She followed a small stream to the shore and peered out onto the horizon. Approaching quickly from the south, she saw a shining glint of silver.

"That's them," said Vi. "It's the Silverstrike, Tails's new experimental plane. Most of the bugs are fixed, but it gets kind of out of control sometimes. Tails says it needs a better power source, 'cause Chaos Emeralds and bananas just don't cut it…"

Star stopped dead in her tracks as the waves hit her feet. While Vi rambled on, the spirits called all around her…

_Blue hedgehog… the hero._

  

Star sat and waited. She meditated quietly as she had been taught to long ago in Atlantis to channel her energy. The seven Chaos Emeralds encircled her, spinning around and around and going inward and outward. As she prepared for her journey, Diamond, Vi, Percy and Jet waited silently by the shore some ways away, patiently waiting for the plane to reach them.

The shining silver glint grew larger very quickly. In just a few minutes, a blue hedgehog was stepping out of the plane and onto the sandy shore. Meanwhile, a two-tailed fox was turning off the power on his new invention.

Star blinked out of her meditation from the sound of a loud voice to her left.

"Hey guys! Everything good on the island?" asked Sonic. The Flickies nodded their heads up and down. "Nothing out of the ordinary?" this time, they nodded their heads back and forth."

"Not that anything bad has happened," began Diamond.

"But there's someone here who needs to see you…" continued Jet.

Vi spoke next. "It's urgent, apparently.

"Well with how fast she ran…" said Percy, wandering off into his own thoughts.

"What's wrong?" asked Tails as he stepped out of the plane.

"Well…" replied the Flickies in unison.

"Let me explain," called a voice from nearby.

Star walked over slowly. Sonic and Tails just looked at her with curious faces, while the Flickies stood back and let Star explain. After all, she knew the story better than they did.

Just as she was about to start, Tails asked, "Who are you?"

Star sighed as she began her story.

"I am Star Zenia Mystican, and I need your help. Long ago, the ruins to the west were a great city known as Atlantis. They were completely submerged underwater, but it seems that the ruins and some of the surrounding land have risen from the depths of the sea.

"I've heard of the rumor that they were the ruins of Atlantis," said Sonic. "But how can anyone know for sure?"

"Because," explained Star, "I am Atlantian."

"What!?" exclaimed the duo.

"How is that possible?" asked Tails.

Star took a deep breath. "When Atlantis was destroyed, an old friend of mine, trapped in the Chaos Emeralds years before by sacrificing himself to them to save Atlantis, used them to seal me in ice. Now the ice has melted…"

"And you're back," finished Sonic. "But how can we help?"

"I don't know," speculated Star. "The spirits told me to find a blue hedgehog… and travel to a floating island! That was it!"

"Angel Island!" exclaimed Tails. "We'll be there in no time with the Silverstrike's Special Speed Mode! I'll get it running!"

As the fox went to prepare the plane for their voyage, Star and Sonic looked at each other.

"Pretty nice clothes, even for an Atlantian," muttered Sonic.

"Well, I am a Mystican…"

Sonic shot her a quizzical look. Star hit her forehead with her hand, whispering, "Of course dummy."

"Huh?" asked Sonic.

"You wouldn't recognize the last name Mystican, would you. It's the Royal Family of Atlantis."

Sonic's eyes suddenly became very wide, while Tails stopped punching in codes on the plane and looked over slowly.

"So you're a Princess?" asked Tails.

"Did I forget to mention that?" Star asked, a smile spreading on her face.

  

Tails was nearly done with the final adjustments for the Silverstrike before their journey when Star realized she had forgotten yet another HUGE thing that her new friends DEFINITELY needed to know.

"Sonic?" she asked quietly, embarrassed.

"Yeah Star?" the blue hedgehog asked, turning to her.

"Umm," she began, "I forgot another tiny little detail."

Sonic sighed. "Like what? Did you forget to tell us that you're a goddess too?"

Star laughed, feeling a little better. "I'm definitely not a goddess. No goddess would be this forgetful after only a few thousand years trapped in ice."

Sonic laughed as she continued.

"Well… let me show you."

She took the seven Chaos Emeralds out of her pocket. Sonic was surprised.

"I didn't think you would've had time since you got out to through special stages to get those," he said.

"I didn't," she sneered. "I just sort of… got them. They just… came to me."

Just as Sonic was about to reply, Tails jumped out of the Silverstrike and came to the emeralds with a strange device in his hand. Star still couldn't understand what all this "technology" was and how the people of this time harnessed lightning and used it to power big hunks of metal.

Tails took the strange device and used it to scan over the emeralds, one at a time. As he passed over the silver emerald, the device beeped, and a strange voice coming from the "scanner" said, "Fake emerald detected."

"Just as I thought," said Tails as he put the device away. "There was something wrong with that emerald. I could tell that from the energy scanner on the Silverstrike, but that's not nearly as accurate as this scanner. All of the other emeralds are real, but this silver one is fake."

"So it's useless?" asked Star, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to find out what she could do with seven emeralds.

"Not completely," replied Tails as he got his scanner back out again. "According to this, it's not a Chaos Emerald, since its energy readings are almost completely different. However, there is a lot of energy contained in this gem. It could be a different Chaos Gem, or there could be something hidden inside of it. What's really strange is how bright and silvery it is. The missing Chaos Emerald is a lot duller, and is more of a gray color."

"So what do we do with it?" asked Sonic as Tails put the gems in the hidden compartment on the plane, which was designed specifically to keep the emeralds safe.

"Keep it with the others, I guess," he said as he locked the compartment. "Maybe the Atlantian spirits will tell Star something about it later."

Sonic tossed the silver emerald into the compatrment and went to check up on the rest of the flickies on Flicky Island. As Tails continued preparing the plane, Star looked out to the sea, wondering how an island could float. Nothing made any sense in this future.


	3. The City of Silver

"Is everybody ready?" asked Tails.

Star nodded from her comfy seat in the transformed (and ultimately roomier) Silverstrike. Tails counted down and then entered the final code for the Silverstrike—the Launch Code. The Silverstrike shot off across the sand, rising slowly above it and then, in one split second, going nearly straight up, high into the sky. When it was finally going horizontally again, Star looked out the window—what she saw amazed her beyond belief.

The hunk of metal was now soaring above the ocean, a huge expanse of blue blurring past below her. Ahead of them, a speck of darkness was just above the horizon—Angel Island, Star presumed. With the planes amazing speed, it reached the floating island in just under five minutes. When they had landed, Tails and Sonic jumped out. Star stood up to follow them, but then—

"We'll go find Knuckles and see if he knows anything about why you were sent here," said Sonic. "You stay in the plane and guard the Chaos Emeralds.

Although Star was almost certain the plane could just lock up to keep the emeralds safe she guarded them anyway. She could feel their power all around her, and she felt the magic building up inside her, preparing for attack. Then, she heard something come up from behind her. She looked to see that a bat was hurrying through the shadows, carrying a huge green emerald toward the shore. Suddenly, the spirits from the emeralds screamed out in Star's head.

"_That's the Master Emerald! She's stealing it! Stop her!_"

Star gathered up her magic and blew a huge gust of wind at the bat, knocking her off balance. She struggled to keep the Master Emerald and stay standing in the sudden gale, but she couldn't. She dropped to the ground.

"Drat!" she whispered, disappointed but still determined to steal the emerald.

Star kept the gale going strong as a red echidna glided in with Sonic and Tails right behind him. Star weakened the gale just a bit so that she could hear the conversation between the bat and the echidna, but instead of hearing their arguing, she heard something else. It was the voice of a spirit who was trapped inside of the Master Emerald.

"_My name is Tikal_," whispered the spirit. "_I am from another long-lost civilization, the full-echidna race who discovered the Chaos and Master Emeralds. The spirits of Atlantis have sent me a message for you—it is about the final Chaos Emerald. You will find it in the city of silver._"

Before Star could respond, she returned to the human world, finding that the bat was flying away angrily while the echidna leaned on the Master Emerald, clenching his spiky fists. His knuckles were spikes, so Star assumed that he was Knuckles. Sonic and Tails walked back over to the Silverstrike. They were blissfully unaware of Star's creating of the gale and of her speaking with Tikal.

"Knuckles said the Atlantians may have been close friends of his race," Tails explained, "But he can't know for sure."

"That's okay," Star answered back. "I spoke with some spirits—next, I am to go to the city of silver."

Sonic grinned and boomed, "To Silver City, then!"

  

Two minutes later, Star was stepping out of the plane and onto a sandy beach lined with palm trees. Beyond the palm trees were huge buildings towering above her—some seemed to reach up into the sky, threatening to shatter it. And below the buildings was the most surprising thing of all—thousands of people (well, anthropomorphic animals) were bustling through the city's crowded streets. Star had thought that she'd never see this many people in one place again!

"It's amazing!" was all she could say.

When she took another step, the Chaos Emeralds burst from their compartment and began circling around her. She could her a voice within them whispering something.

"_The seventh emerald, gray as storm. Medusa's work would be the norm. Deep within one, does it lie. The seventh emerald, storm-gray sky._"

"A statue," she whispered. Then she turned to Sonic and Tails and asked them, "Is there a statue somewhere in the city?"

"Yeah!" said Sonic. "It's in the center of the city."

Before he could say anything else, Star blasted off, through the streets of Silver City, and to a large circular area with many benches, beautiful fountains,and most importantly, a huge statue in the middle of it. Star couldn't quite figure out what it was supposed to be, but right now she didn't really care. The Chaos Emeralds still circled around her, waiting for her to release the final one of them. Star carefully searched the stone using Earth powers, finding that there was a trapdoor at the top. She used a whirlwind and then blasted through the top of the statue with great strength. Once in the statue, Star found a small gem on a pedestal. The gem was bleak and gray like stone or a stormy sky. She picked it up, and when it began encircling her with the others, it shone slightly more. Star rose up from out of the statue, only to find that a huge robot was attacking the city. She could see that Sonic and Tails were trying to defeat it, but they obviously weren't strong enough—they needed Chaos Emerald power, and she had all of it with her.

Star let the Chaos Emeralds power up. They began circling faster and faster around her, until they were just a blur of light and color. Then, they disappeared from sight, leaving only a few sparkles in their midst. Well, they also left Super Star.

The emeralds' colors were like flames in Star's eyes, and her fur shined a brighter white than it usually does. Her seven quills stood up a little, as if they themselves feared the power now contained within Star, ready to burst. She was ready for battle.

Star flew up to the robot, seeing that a fat, mustached man was sitting in the cockpit, laughing his head off at the miserable defeat of Sonic and Tails, who now watched Star creep up on him from the ground. She held out her hand, and out of it came Chaos Flames, burning just as her eyes were. It blew one of the robots arms off and into the ocean, and the rest of the huge hunk of metal turned to look at its powerful new competition. The fat man seemed afraid from the sight of the Star in this form—she looked very powerful.

Nevertheless, he began to attack her with huge missiles. She didn't even flinch when they hit her. The fire in her eyes burned even stronger as she tore huge rocks from a nearby mine and flung them at the robot, blowing off his other arm and one of his legs. The other leg broke from the weight of the rest of the robot, and then the torso fell to the ground. It was completely smashed, except for the cockpit. Out of it came the fat, bald, mustached man, his face burning red with fury.

"Who are you, you imbecile!?" he asked to Star as she began floating to the ground.

"I am Star Zenia Mystican," she said, "Princess of Atlantis. And you, my friend, are captured."

A huge band of squirrel and chipmunk police came and handcuffed the man. They then threw him in a police car and drove to the station. Soon, reporters were filling up the whole of the area around Star, asking her questions like, "How do you know Eggman?" and "Are you of any relation to Sonic?"

Star powered down, and the emeralds dropped to the floor. Tails swooped in and picked them up quickly before they teleported back to the Flicky Dimension, catching the eye of a few reporters who then followed him back to Sonic. Star answered the questions as well as she could, and in a few hours she was sleeping in her own apartment, Room 419, paid for completely by Freeza Fricks, Mayor of Silver City in thanks for defeating "Eggman," as they called him.

When she woke up she saw the sun rising outside her window. It was a new day. Today she would explore the city, discover more about technology, and maybe meet more of Sonic's friends. The future was bright, and the possibilities were limitless. She could go on like this forever—life in modern times was so much simpler than being royalty, which she loathed with passion. But she also knew that she wanted her city back. And when it came back, she would have to be princess again, right…?

Only time would tell.


End file.
